What about just placing a nice blob of some Grease on the chips, then putting on the heatsink, instead of thermal pads?

I personally use GELID on my CPU

Thermal paste/grease is meant for close tolerances. A high-viscosity (thin and liquidy) TIM like Gelid GC Extreme is a top-tier champ for CPU or GPU cooling, it can flow evenly between mating surfaces and is great for tight, awkward, or interlocking part geometries. But it's not suitable for filling large gaps like these M.2 heatsinks (or a GPU backplate) - some kind of pad or epoxy is far better (the only real choice) for these applications, even though it has less bulk thermal conductivity. A solid solder TIM would be ideal but wouldn't be practical for aftermarket M.2 cooling (indeed, the necessary industrial soldering/reflow temps cannot be used without damaging some NVRAM packages), especially since these heatsinks are designed to allow for general M.2 compatibility instead of being factory-integrated within a specific M.2 product. While "liquid-metal" or "phase-change" reflow TIMs are end-user substitutes for industrial solder-based TIMs, superior in terms of versatility but inferior in terms of performance and longevity and cost.

An active-cooling system (ducted airflow, heatpipes, waterblock, or TEC block) would offer improved spot-cooling on M.2 hardware. But it isn't really necessary with today's SSDs, they can run a little hot but not so much that it's a serious issue, plus today's NVRAM isn't as adversely affected by peak temps as more critical system components. Aggressive SSD cooling might be necessary in a few years if SSD capacities (and technological densities) keep increasing.

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams[/Korth]

A copper strip - attached to the hot parts with some kind of TIM - would absorb some heat. But it wouldn't cool the hot part off unless it could then get rid of that heat - thus the need for a heatsink (or radiator) with some kind of high surface area (like "fins"), and the need for it to be exposed to forced airflow.

One of these M.2 heatsinks wouldn't help much if it just sat there in a dead-air chassis, convection (heat-rising) effects with or without the heatsink are about the same. It can help a lot when a gentle breeze (airflow through the chassis) keeps blowing heat off its surface area, though.

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams[/Korth]

What I meant by my reply is, it doesn't seem benefical to leave the sticker on for the copper strip, I assumed placing a thermal pad over the sticker isn't going to work as well as placing it directly on the chips?

I don't know. Follow manufacturer's instructions if any are available and no other information is available.

I doubt that printed labels/stickers are themselves made of thermally conductive materials. Especially since they're meant to be seen - on an NVRAM product which doesn't come from the factory with a heatsink.

I don't know. Follow manufacturer's instructions if any are available and no other information is available.

I doubt that printed labels/stickers are themselves made of thermally conductive materials. Especially since they're meant to be seen - on an NVRAM product which doesn't come from the factory with a heatsink.